“I was feeling useless. I haven’t found anything in the library that would teach me how to stop a possession, how to stop the practitioner from making a weapon. I needed to do something. So last night I tried to replicate what Luna and I had done.”
“Did you?”
“Mostly.”
“That was the disturbance in your room? With the table and chairs and broken jug?”
Of course the guard would report that. I nodded.
“The guard thought you were having a snit.”
“I don’t have snits.”
“You’re perilously close to having one right now.”
Because he was goading me into it, probably to make me smile. Which I didn’t want. I wanted to wade around in my self-pity. “The point is, I managed to trigger the same pain I feel when the Aetheric practitioner manipulates Aether. I can still feel it.”
Understanding dawned in his face. “So you didn’t feel a specific pain when Jonas…”
I nodded. “Correct.”
“This isn’t your fault, Fox.”
“If I hadn’t tried something stupid—”
“Trying to help isn’t stupid. Risky, but not stupid. And even if you’d felt it, even if I’d sent out more soldiers to look for him, we wouldn’t have found him in time. And yes, they’re out now. I have soldiers inside and outside the wall looking for witnesses, asking questions.”
Catalaya approached with a golden goblet in hand.
“In the meantime,” he whispered, “tell no one else.”
“You look as though you could use a bit of wine,” Catalaya said when she reached us, and handed it to me.
“Thank you,” I said, and wondered if it was poisoned. I took a sip anyway.
“If you’re done here, I thought I’d take a walk in the garden.” She looked at me. “Perhaps you’d like to join me? It’s a lovely day, and you look as if you could use some cheering up.”
It was like she’d exchanged personalities overnight. Maybe she’d decided being prickly wasn’t her best strategy. She already thought I was a threat, or she wouldn’t have deigned to talk to me. I didn’t plan to toss tinder on that fire.
“Of course, Your Ladyship.” I put the goblet aside.
“I’m going to get back to work,” the prince said. “Enjoy your walk.” But he gave me a wary look as he moved back to the palace door, Galen falling into step behind him.
“It’s a beautiful palace,” Catalaya said when we were alone.
“It is,” I said, following as she stepped down from the terrace to the pathway below. “You may stay here, Essie,” she told her maid, who nodded and folded her hands to wait.
“It takes a great deal of work to run a palace,” she said, trailing her hands over the carefully manicured shrubs that lined thispart of the walk. “Many servants, significant coffers, diligent oversight.”
I made a sound of vague agreement, although these coffers were decidedly empty. When we reached the pond, she stopped and cast her gaze across it—boardwalks, gazebos, white water lilies just beginning to open. “A beautiful place. With catalayas blooming.” She picked up a petal, held it in the palm of a soft hand. “Like it was meant to be.”
I’d heard better lines from market grifters; maybe minor aristocrats couldn’t be choosy.
She let the petal fall to the ground and looked at me. “He may not have told you, but the prince and I are promised to each other.” Her voice was absolutely certain. She wanted to see my response, just as she’d tried to manipulate the prince at dinner.
I didn’t have the energy to give her the fight she wanted.
“How lovely,” I said with the bland pleasantness of an experienced servant.
